The Director of Industrial Relations is charged with responsibility for labor management, national negotiations, mechanization, safety and health for all divisions of the union, and the administration of the collective bargaining agreement.

There’s more to being a progressive union than achieving and enforcing a contract — and that’s where the Human Relations Department comes in. Our programs and benefits inspire members to participate in the union and give them a sense of inclusion, contribution, and ownership.

The Maintenance Craft is a diverse and complex division of the APWU. In addition to the three national officers who work at the union's headquarters in Washington, DC, representation is provided by nine Maintenance National Business Agents (NBAs) and three all-craft NBAs.

The Motor Vehicle Craft is composed of APWU members who transport mail and maintain postal vehicles, and includes MVS Clerks, who work in Vehicle Maintenance Facilities and in Transportation Departments in mail processing plants.

The Support Services Division represents APWU bargaining unit members at Information Technology/ Accounting Service Centers, Operating Services facilities, Mail Equipment Shops and Material Distribution Centers, as well as professional nurses employed by the Postal Service. The Division also includes APWU-represented workers who are employed in the private sector, including mail haul drivers and Mail Transport Equipment Service Center employees.

The Northeast Regional Coordinator is responsible for union activity in parts of New York and New Jersey, and Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The Western Region Coordinator is responsible for the union's activities in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and American Samoa, Guam and Saipan.

The Deaf/Hard of Hearing Task Force is a forum for APWU members to address their unique problems and concerns in the workplace, union, and society. Established in 1988 by an amendment to the APWU National Constitution, its goals include: better communication, better representation; better training, a better workplace, a better union, and building friendship.

APWU POWER (Post Office Women for Equal Rights) is the women’s committee within the American Postal Workers Union. It unites women, with their special concerns, yet works within the framework of the national APWU organization.

The APWU National Postal Press Association (PPA) provides APWU communicators with a wide range of assistance, information, and educational programs concerning the publication of union newsletters and media.

Quick-Thinking Clerks Save Customers from Scams

Would service like that continue if retail is privatized?

The first incident took place in Baltimore, when APWU member Loretta Green got suspicious after a customer said he wanted to send an $800 money order to Georgia via Express Mail == without identifying a payee.

“Why would you want to do that?” Green thought. Green and her co-workers began asking the customer questions, and the story emerged. He had received a call at his home, telling him that if he sent a blank $800 money order, he would get back $2 million.

After Green explained that he was being set up for a scam, the man cancelled his order.

“I told him that he is going to get another phone call and that he should ignore it. They are going to keep wanting his money – and he would have probably kept sending it,” Green said. “I care about my customers. That’s what I do,” she said.

The second incident took place in Bellevue, NE, when an elderly woman came to William Reynek’s window with $2,400 in cash, which she wanted to send to the East Coast via Express Mail.

“I thought it was kind of funny and kept asking who she was sending it to,” Reynek recalled. “I said, ‘You know, you don’t want to send this much cash through the mail, why don’t we send money orders? It’s more secure.’”

The customer agreed, but a half hour later returned because she wanted to change the payee. “Red flags went off everywhere,” Reynek said.

Reynek convinced the customer to get the person she was sending the money to on the phone. When he asked what the relationship was to the customer, a voice in a heavy accent kept answering, “a relative.” That’s when he knew it was a scam. Reynek reversed the order and told the customer to deposit the money back in the bank.

“I don’t want to be intrusive, but I don’t want to see somebody scammed out of a large amount of cash,” he said. “I am proud to be a postal employee and proud to be able to help someone vulnerable.”

Management’s efforts to privatize retail operations would make service of this caliber a thing of the past, noted APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “There’s no way a Staples employee would have the experience or training to be aware of scams like these and be able to advise customers to avoid them,” he said. “And customers probably wouldn’t have the long-term trusting relationships to be guided by private-sector clerks.”